Knives

[Lucky Luke 1]

I'm thinking of wearing a sailing knife rather than a pocket knife. For those who have worn them for awhile what knife would you recommend? Is there a prefered sailing knife? Guessing smaller is better?

Show us your knives.

[PerfectPirate]

For the past twenty years, I have worn a Leatherman Wave on my belt whenever I leave the house. The knife blades can be opened one-handed and the multi-tool aspect is useful for so many tasks on board. I literally don't leave home without it, unless I am dressed for a formal occasion.


By the way, there are a number of existing threads re choosing a knife. Use the search function to find them.

[thinwater]

I haven't carried one at all for... 35 years. I did a few times, but it just seemed like more clutter in my pockets. I like empty pockets when sailing.



There is a good one in the cockpit in a pocket. Some boats I have kept one at the mast. Always in the cockpit. I have one or several specialty knives in my sewing kit for working with twine, cloth and rope; no all-purpose knife would do as well. I have a bait/line knife in my fishing kit; something cheap to cover in bait. And good knives in the galley.


There is always the right one at hand.


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Best knife? They are all different, so not really. Sharp, simple, locking or fixed, and not super cheap. No accessories, other than a lanyard for the deck knives.

[Lucky Luke 1]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I haven't carried one at all for... 35 years. I did a few times, but it just seemed like more clutter in my pockets. I like empty pockets when sailing.



There is a good one in the cockpit in a pocket. Some boats I have kept one at the mast. Always in the cockpit. I have one or several specialty knives in my sewing kit for working with twine, cloth and rope; no all-purpose knife would do as well. I have a bait/line knife in my fishing kit; something cheap to cover in bait. And good knives in the galley.


There is always the right one at hand.


---


Best knife? They are all different, so not really. Sharp, simple, locking or fixed, and not super cheap. No accessories, other than a lanyard for the deck knives.

I'm not after a pocket knife and have several of those. I don't mind them for camping but like you when sailing i don't like anything in my pockets.

[Lucky Luke 1]

Originally Posted by PerfectPirate

For the past twenty years, I have worn a Leatherman Wave on my belt whenever I leave the house. The knife blades can be opened one-handed and the multi-tool aspect is useful for so many tasks on board. I literally don't leave home without it, unless I am dressed for a formal occasion.


By the way, there are a number of existing threads re choosing a knife. Use the search function to find them.

Yes there are a couple i saw. Mostly talking about pocket knives or kitchen knives hence my more narrow question.

[SunnySky]

A sharp knife an absolutely essential piece of safety gear to the point that I make a point that anyone sailing on my boat understands the importance of having one readily available regardless of what knife they personally choose to carry... This issue is front and center on my mind because this past January I ended up sticking my neck out in a salvage/wreck removal situation dealing with a monohull which went aground, and the day of the incident I actually at one point had to lend my personal knife to the vessel owner because he didn't have a knife... Granted it is not every day a boat goes aground or ends up in any number of other potential emergency situations, but being prepared for "what if's" is central to being a good sailor whether it be cutting free of monofilament fishing line while diving or cutting a dyneema line which costs $5/foot as a last resort...

As to best/which knives to have readily available, that is inclined to start as strong of a debate as which anchor is best, but I would say #1 below should be on everyone onboard and #2 should readily available in general:

1) A sharp knife capable of cutting synthetic line quickly, I have a strong bias for fixed blades in general (due to strength/less maintenance/easier to keep clean... either way ~3" is a good length and serrations have their pros and cons..) and very corrosion resistant materials (and a handful of "corrosion-proof" blade materials if adequate edge holding...), but main thing is that it is readily available to both cut and not cut: Forget about any fixed blade that is difficult to resheath (unless make your own kydex sheath for it...), and also forget about a folding knife that is overly difficult to open or close with one hand fitting into this role... There are a number of good smaller dive knives that can fill this role well, some of which with beta-titanium/H1/etc in terms of a great blade material (but other dive knives tend to be gloried prybars that will never hold an edge...) in addition to the "sailing" or "white-water rafting" marketed knives.

2) I also highly recommend a multi-tool such as a leatherman (there are times the multi-tool vice-grips can really save the day, but generally any good corrosion resistant multi-tool) which is readily available even if not carried on the person. A one-hand opening leatherman can potentially take care of #1 role as well, but it's going to require a lot more TLC if it is always on you, as opposed to buried away in a drybag nice and dry most of the time...



So long as both the above are taken care of, I also really like having a few Gerber EAB Lite Pocket knives with Lenox Titanium edge utility knife blade (or similar) kicking around. They are far from a specialty sailing knife or anything to write home about, but the titanium edge will stay sharp until the titanium coating wears off, as opposed to getting dull due to corrosion, and they make it effortless to have a handy razor sharp knife that can get used hard and then razor sharp by simply changing the blade... (they will rust some in a marine environment so I would recommend oiling as with any pocketknife, using blue locktite to secure the blade screw, and to not fully trust their pocket clip..)

[PirateFoxy]

When I rode horses in addition to individuals having their own personal ‘nice’ knives, the stable kept what were basically nice sharp steak knives (~3-4” blade, serrated w big teeth) in a few strategic positions fixed to walls/shelves/etc. so there was pretty much always a knife to hand if anything happened. (Horses exist to figure out how to break themselves in new and expensive ways.) I think they found the steak knife type things from a restaurant supply were the right balance of ‘cuts most stuff quickly in an emergency’ and ‘cheap enough if it gets damaged or falls in the compost pile no one cares.’ So that may be something to consider, having some ‘cheap and cheerful’ knives in useful places?

[double u]

...always a razor-sharp knive handy in the cockpit - & never needed in >100.000 miles...
(the likelyhood of having to cut a line falls with the 5th power of the proportion of it's price you have to pay of it...)

[SunnySky]

The stable PirateFoxy's mentioned also had very similar / tried and true approach to many commercial fishing boats as well: searching online for "fishermen's deck knife" will find you basically what PirateFoxy described at the stable but with a seaworthy sheath for on the water in the $20-$25 range (be it Gage, Plante, etc, or a few generic Dexter Sanisafe knives securely wedged places everyone onboard knows..).

[Kim Morley]

Gate 14 multi-function sailing knife is good. Have such one.

[Rumrace]

Other than my buck and my Swiss Army knife my scuba knives are rigid. The Buck is the bush knife so in Georgian bay it gets carried ashore. The Swiss is a constant companion.
The Scuba knives are high tech. All stainless rusts don’t listen to the contrary. So I always dive with two knives. One high one low. Both have line cutters saw blades and rust. Not for sharks. Sharks are nice. Fishing line nets debris traps in shipwrecks. I broke a ceramic knife at 234 feet. So much for pressure builds. As a cutting edge ceramic is amazing but it’s unpredictable in 6+ atmospheres

[Peeew]

I have found the Myerchin sailing knife/spike/pliers too to be my most useful sailing knife. Very strong and has the tools for most of my deck needs without getting too complicated. It comes with a belt sheath, but in my mind a very weak one.
https://myerchin.com/product-categor...-sailors-tool/

[MicHughV]

People have had a habit of giving me these leatherman multi-knife tools for xmas. I must have a dozen of them, spread around, but I don't find them particularly useful or practical.

I have my trusty 6" fillet knife in a plastic scabbard, which I will sharpen from time to time. Not one of those flimsy, bendable blades, it has a stout blade, holds an edge extremely well and plastic handle. It is, by far and away, my favorite knife.

I used to strap a dive knife to my leg when diving, but stopped doing that years ago, as I never found a reason to do so. As above, I noted that the dive knife would soon rust.

[Mike OReilly]

This is the best knife/multi-tool I've owned, and I've gone through around a 1/2 dozen over the years.

Leatherman Charge (Titanium). It is by far the most useful tool I carry on our boat. I use it everyday to do jobs both small and large. And because the main blades can be opened with one hand, it's an excellent emergency knife as well. In my mind, it's better than any single-purpose knife, including the standard rigging knife.

[Macblaze]

I carry a Skeletool leatherman on my pfd but it's rarely that sharp as it's more of a tool than anything. My son made me a "sailing" knife which is razor sharp and I keep it lashed to the binnacle...

I will note that a super sharp knife can be "dangerous" in a bouncing boat setting—which I learned to my chagrin this summer when I was cutting weeds from our stern line and noticed as I was stepping back aboard that my hand was bleeding profusely. I stupidly left the knife hanging from wrist on the lanyard and didn't even notice it whenever it happened